There is an option hunger_ng_use_hunger_bar you can set to false in minetest.conf. This prevents the hunger bar created by Hunger NG to be shown (anything else works like before, this option just hides the hunger bar and disables the functions to change the hunger bar) in case of other mods have issues with this.

I've noticed an issue with the alignment of HUD elements in this mod. After some testing, it seems like the icon texture is aligned with the top of the bar. For correct scaling, 'statbar' (and the vanilla bars) require textures that are a multiple of (or that can be cleanly multiplied to) 24. As you can see below, neither 12px nor 24px icons align properly with the progress bar:

An 18px icon would be properly centered, but it won't scale correctly in other modes. As a result, making a stat icon that looks correct in all modes is quite difficult. Is there any chance that we could get the hud elements vertically aligned by their center instead of their top?

The reason why I reverted it is because I get a weird warning in console when the size argument is nil.
I have posted a thread about this: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=23290

Can someone with experience in modding please experiment with statbars a bit on their system if the system has broken statbars? Just to figure out what is going on in Minetest.

Because the bugfix doesn't make sense. The explicit size I specified is identical to the file size. Why making the size arg nil should fix the bug is beyond me … Maybe an engine bug? Sounds likely, since the bug is system-dependent. That's why I ask people for more research.

Sadly, I cannot help with testing, as I don't experience this bug.

PS: I just had a very silly idea: Why happens if you just flip the x and y arguments?

I just realized that on Windows, where I have a 4K display, Minetest by default uses either "System" or "System (Enhanced)" DPI scaling which downgrades the resolution to 1536x801

To get something closer to 4K (3840x2004), I have to change the DPI scaling to "Application".

However, in order to do that and be able to read things, I need to adjust Minetest's DPI settings, from the default 72 to 192. This however does not reposition Hudbars. 192 is the highest I can go where Hudbars are still in a position where I can read them (right under the item selection)

Example of "Application" DPI scaling, with Minetest DPI set to 192, which produces a 3840x2004 resolution:

I have a Linux desktop also with a 4K monitor, though I haven't tested it there.

I'd love to do a video tutorial of Digital Farms for new players who might not remember the old Pizza Server and starve to death right away, but if it's possible for this bug to be fixed, I'd rather wait and do a 4K 60FPS video instead of a 1080 one.